who knows about saxophones

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Mon May 12, 2014 4:50 pm

can i just buy a used one for 200 bucks

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Mon May 12, 2014 6:47 pm

Second hand ones are full of other peoples saliva... Would you buy a second hand toothbrush?

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Mon May 12, 2014 6:55 pm

dezb1 wrote:Second hand ones are full of other peoples saliva... Would you buy a second hand toothbrush?

thats so fcking gross but i dont want to spend a thousand dollars on something im just gonna use to make noise with

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Tue May 13, 2014 4:10 am

I bought a cheap Taiwanese soprano off of a cool Nigerian jazz dude who lives here in Seoul, so theoretically I got DNA from multiple continents potentially living inside the thing and I don't seem to be dead yet. Paid the equivalent of $160 to share a few squillion bacteria bodies.

Sax is so similar to flute that fingering has been a breeze for me to learn, embouchure is easier on the chops than clarinet (my Selmer has gotten almost zero love over the past few years as a result), but the whole "keep the reed wet" and wipe off the interior before there's a fungus among us part of said woodwinds can get so annoying, compared to brass in general.

Working on this one right now, both vox and the horn parts...

[youtube][/youtube]

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Tue May 13, 2014 8:13 am

Don't buy if you don't know how to play and don't plan on lessons, you even need to learn how to blow in it, besides the fingering.

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Wed May 14, 2014 1:40 pm

ultratwin wrote:I bought a cheap Taiwanese soprano off of a cool Nigerian jazz dude who lives here in Seoul, so theoretically I got DNA from multiple continents potentially living inside the thing and I don't seem to be dead yet. Paid the equivalent of $160 to share a few squillion bacteria bodies.

Sax is so similar to flute that fingering has been a breeze for me to learn, embouchure is easier on the chops than clarinet (my Selmer has gotten almost zero love over the past few years as a result), but the whole "keep the reed wet" and wipe off the interior before there's a fungus among us part of said woodwinds can get so annoying, compared to brass in general.

Working on this one right now, both vox and the horn parts...

[youtube][/youtube]

well that's disturbing... im not trying to become a sax genius-- i just want to learn enough to be dangerously noisy so we don't have to have generic guitar noise solos in my band...

what kind of cheap taiwan sax did u buy and would u recommend buying chinese made brass instruments? (they've a lot of haters on the internet from what i've seen)

moogmusic · Post by **moogmusic** » Wed May 14, 2014 2:25 pm

If you just want to make noise then any old cheap sax will do I guess - you'd only need a good one if you were interested in the old soulful tunes. Beware the key (Eb or Bb) depending on the size as these translates to different notes in real life.

brainfur · Post by **brainfur** » Wed May 14, 2014 4:31 pm

moogmusic wrote:If you just want to make noise then any old cheap sax will do I guess - you'd only need a good one if you were interested in the old soulful tunes. Beware the key (Eb or Bb) depending on the size as these translates to different notes in real life.

oh yeah? they are tuned differently? like different size ones are or two saxophone of the same size could be tuned differently?

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Tue May 20, 2014 6:15 am

brainfur wrote:
moogmusic wrote:If you just want to make noise then any old cheap sax will do I guess - you'd only need a good one if you were interested in the old soulful tunes. Beware the key (Eb or Bb) depending on the size as these translates to different notes in real life.
oh yeah? they are tuned differently? like different size ones are or two saxophone of the same size could be tuned differently?

â€¢ Soprano and tenor saxophones, along with the Bb trumpet/cornet/flugel horn/Bb Clarinet/Euphonium/Baritone/Bass trombone are Bb.

â€¢ Altos and Baritone saxophones, along with the higher Eb Clarinet etc. are Eb.

What this means is if you play the written "C" ("concert C" as it is called in practice), you will sound said note of Eb or Bb in the above instruments. So If I play the written C major scale on a Soprano saxophone, I will actually be sounding the Bb major scale. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now it's easy to understand why in my marching band years, we always warmed up and tuned while using Concert Bb and the Bb major scale, since so many instruments were oriented as such, not to mention how so many instruments (although certainly not all) have comparatively easy fingering when playing the Concert Bb scale.

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Tue Jun 10, 2014 4:49 pm

If you are just going to use one to make noise then yes, any old thing off ebay ( I would say an Alto is best for this) will do that is straight out of China.
Some are made of very "bendy" malleable "brass" so some note can get awkward to play once the sax has been knocked about a bit.
We've been through 3 second hand Alto's for my eldest and now finally got a good one on the 4th. He's learning the play it properly and has a frightenly natural ability to sight read and play.
Mic'ing up an Alto and running it through guitar stompboxes is fun